MAY 22, 2014 – My favorite civil rights activist right now, Rev. Dr. William Barber II, led over 100 activists in a march at the world headquarters of McDonald’s in Oak Brook, Illinois calling attention to the low pay that hard workers across the country face at minimum wage jobs, and in an act of civil disobedience sat down and got arrested for “trespassing” to show support for workers across the nation. Activists are concentrating and focusing on McDonald’s for two reasons. First, because of McDonalds size and influence, and secondly there is a annual shareholders meeting today at their “World Headquarters” (Death Star?) in Oak Brook. Bloomberg.com has a good piece up about how the McDonald’s worker makes $8.25 and hour, and the McDonald’s CEO makes $8.25 million dollars. Worker’s wages have gone flat, while McDonald’s profits have soared. The pay gap has gotten ridiculously huge, and it is time that we as a nation raise the minimum wage to what these activists are calling for: $15.00 an hour; and of course workers absolutely need the right to organize into unions, and collectively bargain for their rights. Corporations push for their rights through lobbyists and lawyers, so workers should have that same right also.
Leading the fight for this is millions of activists and thousands of organizations, and one of the best ones in my opinion is “Fight For $15!” or , “Lucha Por $15!”. They were out in full force yesterday in Illinois fighting for their fellow workers, and you can find out more about this org at the website FightFor15.org . The Chicago Tribune has some video of the protest, watch below.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://youtu.be/9HuVzNnYnZE[/youtube]
